The annual unemployment rate has hit another record high due to various factors ranging from restructuring in manufacturing and slow population growth to a slowdown in services and small businesses. The number of jobs created in fiscal 2018 stood at 97,000 from the previous year, according to Statistics Korea, Wednesday. This marks the lowest job creation since 2009 when 87,000 people lost their jobs in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, which also hit the local capital market and hurt manufacturers' finances.It is also considered a huge drop compared to 2017 when the economy created 316,000 new jobs, more than three times the 2018 number.In December, that number stood only at 34,000 year-on-year due to a drop in hiring by manufacturers. The monthly figure was also the lowest in nine years.Manufacturers laid off 127,000 workers in December. Because of those factors, the economy couldn't add 100,000 jobs, which is considered the minimum threshold that can help spur consumption and eventually return inflation to the 2 percent target level.The number of unemployed reached an annual record of 1.07 million, in 2018, up 0.1 percentage point to 3.4 percent.The overall employment rate also fell 0.3 percentage points to 60.1 percent.At a meeting of economy-related ministers Wednesday, Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said it was his responsibility to create more jobs in 2019 than in 2018.He said the government will seek to create 150,000 in 2019 by pursuing regulatory reforms in services and developing a "sharing economy." It will enable startups to launch online-to-offline applications for car-sharing and hospitality services such as ones offered by Uber and Airbnb. "It will be difficult to reach 150,000, but we will seek change that can be felt by all people," Hong said.This includes reducing job mismatches and providing further support for small businesses.As a start, Hong said at a job fair after holding the meeting that state-run enterprises will employ 23,000 in 2019.Analysts say creating 150,000 jobs could be achievable as the government is shifting its policy to encourage private investment.An increase in employment may not happen in the first half of 2019, but the government could reach its target in the second half after the market adjusts to the policy shift."It may be difficult to create that many jobs given the economy is expected to grow slower in 2019. But it's doable because of the policy shift, which the market will take some time to absorb," said Moon Jeong-hee, an economist at KB Securities.Considering the size of the economy and its demographics, the most suitable number would be 200,000 new jobs.To this end, Moon said 150,000 may be higher than last year, but is still low.In 2017, slow growth, a government policy supporting only labor and rapidly changing demographics weighed down on job creation, the analyst noted.